Explaining the “Quartz Movement” Watch Preference
Take a look around the JWLS online shop and you might notice this: all JWLS watches are powered by Japanese quartz movements.
That could, naturally, spark a question such as this: why do some watch connoisseurs prefer quartz movements, while others are much more enthusiastic about watches with automatic movements (also known as mechanical watches)?
For many watch-lovers, quartz watches are seen as possessing one particular advantage over mechanical watches: quartz watches, because they keep time through a battery (which, fascinatingly, electrifies a tiny crystal of quartz), are much more reliable time-keepers than automatics. The quartz crystal vibrates at a consistent frequency anywhere in the world, and this fact was used by watch engineers to devise remarkably accurate timepieces.
Automatic watches – which have a history spanning over 300 years – are built to track time by the intricate movements of precise, miniature mechanical parts (coupled to springs) which get their power from the natural, daily motions of the wearer.
And because automatic watches are mechanical – not battery powered – they have far, far more parts than a quartz watch. If you placed both a quartz watch and an automatic under an X-ray machine – getting a look inside these watches – you’d see just how enormously complex an automatic is compared to a quartz watch. Indeed, the automatic would look quite like a microscopic factory, with gears spinning and whirring; the quartz watch, on the other hand, would look dramatically simpler in design.
Since quartzes don’t have nearly as many moving parts as automatics, they can reliably keep time – even in rough, less-than-friendly conditions (whether that’s skydiving or mountain biking or some other adrenaline-spiked activity). Watches with quartz movements are well-known for their extreme time-telling precision.
Meanwhile, because of their intricate inner architecture, automatic watches generally require servicing every four years or so; in addition, the day, date, and time must be reset whenever the watch exhausts its power.
So which type of watch should you get? A rigorously accurate quartz movement, or an automatic?
Ultimately, the answer to that question all boils down to the main reason why you’re investing in a watch: as a “testament to an artform,” as someone said about automatics, or because you want “to always know the exact time regardless of sleet, deep water, or a 30 foot fall,” as a quartz movement enthusiast said.
Of course, if you’re in the mood for an elegant watch with a quartz movement, then JWLS may have a stylish timepiece that exactly suits your taste.
